Subject :- Financial Accounting Special Accounting Areas Paper Ii: Fill & Download for Free

Disclaimer: At the end of the day, ICAI is the boss.I am happy that finally there is a change and I have decided to stay happy by not thinking about possibilities beyond that, since at the end of the day …The change was long awaited and over due as well. It has been a decade since the last major change in syllabus. In a Profession like Chartered Accountants, this is like trying to file Returns for FY 2014–15 in FY 2017–18. On the contrary, Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of India (ICMAI) has already resolved to bring New syllabus, every four years. This is not just a resolution, but also very smoothly implemented plan, as ICMAI shifted from Syllabus 2008 to Syllabus 2012 and now Syllabus 2016, trying to keep its syllabus up to date with the trends.Before someone confuses New Syllabus with Devil’s curse, let me explain why changing syllabus is for the benefit of all, with no hardship involved.As I have explained in the past, New Syllabus will be applicable only to students who register for CPT, IPCC or Final after 30th June.For Students who have already registered or will have already registered by 30th June, for any particular level - New Syllabus will applicable to them for the next level.For existing IPCC students, Final will be under new syllabus, similarly for exisiting CPT students, Intermediate & Final will be under new syllabus. The syllabus is not dependent on your exam attempt but your course registration date.So please understand, there is no impact on the efforts that you have already made, books that you have bought or classes that you have joined.Changing course syllabus keeps the students up to date with the trends in the profession, which directly affects their employability. Else, companies would have to invest heavily in training of such Chartered Accountants and they might start considering alternatives.Besides, even ISCA subject has been dropped, IT subject has been streamlined. So if any of the above reasons doesn’t seem acceptable, atleast this would be.On one hand students cry for not getting well paid jobs, and then they also curse ICAI for making any change in the syllabus. “Chit bhi meri, patt bhi meri” (Heads is mine, tails too) will not work in your benefit. So, it is highly important to keep changing the Syllabus as per trends.For beginners, refer New Syllabus[1] & Old Syllabus[2][3] through footnote links.CPC BECOMES FOUNDATIONMore Accounts, Nightmare for Science Stream Students - Good move.Earlier Accounts was for 60 marks, now 100 marks. The increase in marks is coupled with some IPCC topics like Average Due Date, Accounting from Incomplete Records & Financial Statements of Non Profit Organization being introduced at Foundation level. This further strengthens the base for Accounting and for students joining from Science stream, this could be a nightmare.No restriction on other medium students, but learn English before you join CA course - Highly appreciative move.This is what the second paper’s structure says, Law for 60 marks with 40 marks General English. Limited Liability Partnership Act & Introduction to Companies Act has been added to the Foundation level. General English covers Articles, Reports, Emails, Formal Letters, Grammar, Comprehension, Anonymns, Synonyms, etc. Basically, the 10th / 12th standard English subject, compressed into a zip file. Another good move. One reason why many CA students lacked good English skills because there was no restriction on which medium school or college you come from. There is still no restriction, but ICAI has closed that loophole by introducing English. So Non-English medium students will now have to learn English properly and in-depth, before entering CA course.More Mathematics to keep students out of CA course - Good moveMathematics & Statistics has been expanded into a full 100 marks subject rather than the 50 marks zip version. Now this subject is value for study, as earlier too many topics were for too less marks. There is also a 20 marks logical reasoning included. While Mathematics & Statistics may not be extensively useful in CA profession, the knowledge of the same ensures strong reasoning & logical thinking capacity, which is highly important while auditing. This subject will also ensure students do not pass CA foundation in bulk quantity as before, but a check on the same can be maintained.Improved Understanding of Business - Requesting practical questionsEconomics is same as before, with 10 additional marks and Business Cycles as additional topic. Business & Commercial Knowledge is a wonderful subject added, only if the questions are more practical. The best part of this subject syllabus is the following part - “Students are expected to read atleast one financial newspaper and one business magazine.” Wow! This line says a lot. So question paper may contain some practical questions about ongoing issues. If this is true, then it would be a really great move.No more MCQs in Accounting, Law & English. Negative marking for Economics, Statistics & Mathematics - Great moveAccounting, Law & English are some important subjects which test the writing skills of the students. While Mathematics, Statistics, Economics & Commercial Knowledge is merely objective. Usually all subjects are tested at the same standard, however, ICAI took the brave decision of distinguishing the standard of evaluation for different subjects at the same level. This will definitely improve the competitiveness of the Chartered Accountants. Negative marking is same as before. It keeps answering merely by guess i.e. randomness of answering under check.IPCC BECOMES INTERMEDIATEShifting of Accounting Topics - Nothing special hereSome topics of Accounting have been shifted to Foundation while some topics have been borrowed from Advanced Accounting. Good thing is including all Accounting Standards in Accounting & Advanced Accounting subjects leaving behind only advanced issues for Final level. This will help students during articleship.Inclusion of useful topics at early stage in Law - Good moveTopics like interpretation of statutes, drafting deeds & documents, etc. have been included at Intermediate level itself. Consumer laws & brief introductions to labour laws has also been included. This ensures that the student is not completely blank about interpretations & legal documents. With this knowledge student can further build on with the practical knowledge he/she obtains. Certainly, Intermediate level has been designed keeping Articleship in mind and this is certainly a change for good.Learn the entire Costing all at once - Eat with two spoons nowThere’s one extra subject at Intermediate level, as Costing and Financial Management have been split into two 100 marks paper. The earlier Costing syllabus was certainly not enough for 100 marks paper, so now entire Costing i.e. the Costing at IPCC and Costing at Final level, both have been accomodated in one subject. I am doubtful, how good this move would be. Students have faced difficulties in Costing even at Final level because of multiple methods that can be used. Introducing such difficulty at Intermediate level is a big burden on students. All of this to insert one additional subject at Final level. Keep reading.Tax Subject is same as before. - Too much for too less.I still feel and this is with respect to all three ICAI, ICSI and ICMAI - either select certain chapters of tax laws or make them two different subjects. This is too much to read for so less marks, especially Direct Taxes which is a vast subject. Since ICAI’s motive is to accomodate more & more subjects in the syllabus, this is a move that they have made. As we know, at the end of the day …Advanced Accounting looks like dead end of Accounting - Not sureICAI has included Guidance notes in Advanced Accounting. There are only 5 other topics in Advanced Accounting which means each Guidance Note will now be tested in much deeper sense. In my opinion, it is too early to introduce Guidance notes. The syllabus of Foundation or Group 1 Accounts could have been spread over and shared with Group II Accounts, but ICAI seems to have decided something. I am adding an attention flag, it doesn’t seem appropriate.Audit subject seems quite improved in content - Very Good Move.The Auditing subject under the old course was too simple & pointless. Now the subject has been divided into topics as we have in Audit Plans. This is a significant improvement from the old syllabus as now it seems to include more practical subjects. We will only know how much they have improved the subject when the books are published, but as of now, looking at the topics, it looks convincing.Business Economics seems repetitive - Not so good moveFinancial Management is same as before, and now it feels like the only subject which is true value for marks. There is no cramming of topics in this subject and 60 marks is appropriate. However, the balance 40 marks Business Economics is like History of Finance & India Economy, which is good stuff, but these topics are already covered in Class 11th & 12th. Students already get the basic knowledge of Economics before CA course, so Business Economics seems repetitive. Again this would be a purely theoretical subject from the syllabus, a big question mark here.IT subject streamlined, SM same as before - That’s awesome!In original draft syllabus, ICAI had kept Information Technology subject in tact, but they have now streamlined the subject. As you can see the name is now “Business Information Systems”, thus, certain topics from ISCA will be introduced in IT subject. Only topics which are really very relevant have been retained. Strategic Management has been kept in tact. I wish there are more Case Laws in both IT and SM, it would have made subject more relevant. In CMA course, there are case laws from industry mentioned in Study Material, for students to understand concepts practically which are not asked in exams. I hope ICAI either now or later introduces such case laws.FINAL STAYS FINALFinancial Reporting has fewer topics, means more difficult- Not sureThe syllabus of Financial Reporting stays same except for exclusion of certain topics and shifting them to Intermediate level. Now although looking at syllabus, a student may think of it as a scoring subject, I feel the Financial Reporting subject will get more tougher because the topics which have been eliminated were the easier ones. This seems like a Lion’s den to me. Accident prone zone. Guidance Notes are going to bring in tough questions.Financial Management now looks interesting - Very Good moveThe old syllabus didn’t cover valuation in depth. Now there is an entirely new chapter on valuations. Besides, introduction of Islamic Finance is a great move. It would be an interesting topic to read, not sure about exam questions, as they would probably be theoretical. Interest rate risk management has been added considering the need of hour. The syllabus seems better, but I expect inclusion of Practical case studies like ICMAI modules which helps in understanding the practical aspects which students cannot learn in articleship.Advanced Auditing subject seems same - Requesting Case StudiesAdvanced Auditing subject has only been consolidated in a better manner. The subject under old syllabus lacked case studies and I feel the same would happen in new course as well. The way we learn Auditing and the way we apply in real world is different and this gap can only be filled in by Case Studies. Dear ICAI, Auditing is our key subject. Please include Case Studies here, make it more difficult but more practical so that it guides in real life situations as well.Allied Laws is like ‘Yeh bhi padhlo, woh bhi padhlo’ - Worst moveEither increase the weightage of Allied Laws or reduce the number of laws. ICAI did neither of them, but only included more laws without improving the weightage. This subject looks so crammed up. It was already so crammed up, and now they further added more laws to it. Now there are 17 Laws for 30 marks! I won’t say a word further about this, since you know, at the end of the day …Strategic Cost Management & Performance Evaluation, Copy cats! This war between ICMAI & ICAI is getting hotter - Great moveThis is an open war with ICMAI. In Cost & Management Accountant course, you have exactly the same subject at Final level with same name and same topics. This subject is certainly introduced to keep competition with ICMAI in check. This is great subject, in my opinion. It was the biggest difference between CA and CMA course which has now been eliminated. This subject might be partially practical and partially theory. Quantitative techniques have been reduced to four topics which is a good move. I wonder, would ICAI and ICMAI merge in future? They are eating each other’s scope, crossing the lines & raiding territories. When will this war come to an end!ISCA teachers go Jobless; Faith in ICAI restored - Legendary move!In draft curriculum, ISCA was retained with some relevant topics only. However, in Final Draft, they have removed the entire subject and introduced concept of ‘Elective Paper’. This is an absolutely welcome move. The choices in elective paper are nice. In future we may have more elective papers being introduced as per need. Now ISCA is covered in Advanced ICITSS course where ISCA would be an Online / OMR exam with multiple choice questions. ISCA wasn’t entirely relevant, hence they move the important topics to IT subject in Intermediate and some parts to the ICITSS course where I believe it won’t be too difficult. Now we will have Chartered Accountants with one specialization area. This is the future we were talking about. Hatsoff to ICAI, people in committee who stood for this suggestion.Direct Taxes is now more Comprehensive - Good moveThere is now a separate section for International Taxation which is actually very important. The 70 marks syllabus for Direct Taxes is same as before, however, I expect now questions would be more advanced and related to Assessment procedures as the Basic part has been covered in Intermediate level. Direct Taxes subject will require more practical knowledge, case laws would become important. Simple calculation questions won’t be asked.GST is the New Subject - Not ICAI, it’s Ex-FM Jaitley’s good move!The credit for this subject cannot be given to ICAI. It truly belongs to Arun Jaitley’s thoughtfulness and approach. GST is going to be effective soon and the new syllabus will include GST. There is nothing to worry about, as one GST law for 70 marks means many simple questions will also be asked. I am pretty sure, the first few attempts will see, many simple papers. Subject will be easier to pass & score than the other subjects especially because the syllabus isn’t vast and nor difficult. The Law is new and therefore, there aren’t as many complications as in case of Excise. Further, very few case laws would be applicable for first few years, almost negligible.OTHER CHANGESISCA exists, but in a different manner - Good moveThere has been a lot of confusion over ISCA subject, but the above picture will guide you. ISCA is not a theoretical subject anymore, nor it is part of CA Final. It is now a part of AICITSS course as a MCQ pattern paper. This exam will be similar to the old ITT exams, however, with a significant change in the syllabus.You can switch to New Course at any time - As expectedAs mentioned in above FAQ 41, you are allowed to switch over to new course at any point of time if you wish to. Probably the option would exist in the Examination Form that you fill up.Pass any Group of Articleship - A move for benefit of students.You can pass any Group of Intermediate, complete ICITSS training and start Articleship i.e. even after passing Group II, you can start Articleship.Combining IT Training & GMCS - Good move.ITT, Orientation & GMCS have been combined to form ICITSS and Advanced ICITSS. The first one has to be done prior to Articleship, while the other one in last two years of articleship.Final exam 2.5 years rule retained same as before - Good decisionIn Draft rules, it was mentioned, final exams can be given only after completing entire 3 years training. However, ICAI has after re-thinking, restored the rule to same as before i.e. after 2.5 years you can give your final exams.Alert! Irrespective of your Registration, ITT/Orientation/GMCS will be under New ICITSS course only - owing to administrative reasonsEven if you are registered under old course and you have not completed your GMCS or Orientation & ITT course by 30th June, you will be required to pursue ICITSS course instead of existing courses.Conclusion: Almost all remarks are appreciative. See why I am happy. There is change and the change is good. This is something that everyone will accept. The only problem here is, we are human beings. We have a lot of expectations. Our expectations have no boundaries and therefore, the more we think, the more we will be discontent. I feel happy that atleast some appropriate changes have been done. There can be so many more changes that we could imagine, but the Expert committee does consist of Experts who would have considered everything. No point in pondering over what could have been done or what should have been done, since at the end of the day …Friends who feel there could have been more changes or better changes - Yes, maybe you are right. However, let’s first appreciate the changes that have come after waiting for a decade and stay happy with what’s happening, instead of bothering over something that is not happening or not going to happen atleast in next few years.Edit 1 : The answer has been updated to reflect changes between draft curriculum & final curriculum. Feel free to ask queries about New curriculum in comments. If queries are personal, visit my profile for contact details.Related queries[1] In the CA final paper 6, which subject will have better career options?[2] What is the most significant change in new curriculum of the CA course?[3] Who will be most adversely affected by the new curriculum of CA course?Footnotes[1] http://resource.cdn.icai.org/45557bos35643.pdf[2] http://resource.cdn.icai.org/45099bos35101cpc.pdf[3] http://resource.cdn.icai.org/45100bos35101ipc.rar

First MoveLet me start with the students initiative who are the pillars of the profession and purely based on whose exam fee the ICAI runs:Entry to the profession will be restricted to only those who have opted for commerce group right from their higher secondaryThe reason for the above move is not the disrespect to the people from science stream but the respect I would like to give to a person who has already lived with commerce and accounts for atleast 2 yearsI would redesign the course curriculum as followsPass in Senior Secondary exam with Commerce, Accounting and Economics will be the prerequisite to join foundation courseOn successful completion of Foundation course / B.Com(with Commerce group in HSC Level) Entry will be for Inter LevelOn successful completion of Inter Level - Appear and Pass Final and apply for membership.Now going into detail of how the course will be as designed by meAt Foundation level - Subjects will be as follows:Paper 1 - Accountancy - 100 MarksPaper 2 - Business Economics - 100 MarksPaper 3 - Business Law - 80 Marks and Professional Ethics - 20 MarksPaper 4 - General Computer Skills - 50 Marks( Will cover basic computer skills like how to troubleshoot basis computer problems like OS reinstall and Some very basic MS office Skills) ; Quantitative Technique - 50 MarksAt Inter LevelGroup IPaper 1 - Advanced Accounting - 100 MarksPaper 2 - Auditing - 100 MarksPaper 3 - Financial management - 100 MarksPaper 4 - Corporate Law - 100 MarksGroup IIPaper 5 - Cost Accounting - 100 MarksPaper 6 - Direct Taxation - 100 MarksPaper 7 - Indirect Taxation - 100 MarksPaper 8 - Information Technology - Practical training which will include advanced MS office Skills and Basic Accounting Software testing - 50 Marks ; Theoritical paper on Computer Assisted Audit Techniques - 50 MarksAt Final LevelGroup IPaper 1 - Financial Reporting - 100 MarksPaper 2 - Auditing - 100 MarksPaper 3 - Direct Tax (With more emphasis on Assessment proceedings and NRI Taxation) - 100 MarksPaper 4 - Indirect Tax - 100 MarksGroup IIPaper 5 - Cost Accounting(With specific focus on Agriculture related produce costing and price fixing for agricultural products) - 100 MarksPaper 6 - Advanced Economics and Business Funding - 100 MarksPaper 7 - Financial Markets( will cover mostly Stock market related topics)Paper 8 - Advanced Information Systems Audit - Fully Practical.Topics will be advanced accounting package understanding and programming tailor made reports in them like ABAP Program for SAP etc., - 75 Marks ; Using MS Excel as a Audit Software for CAAT - Advanced Level of Excel - Usage of Macros etc.,) - 25 Marks.The Paper 8 in Final Level alone will revolutionise the course, since whether we like it or not CAAT are going to rule the world of audit and accounting in the coming years and hence a CA should expertise himself/herself in this.Articleship will be continued as it is in the present stage and will be the same 3 years.Now coming to the Members:A dedicated website for CA’s which will have a forum to discuss professional topics and to socialise between members. This website will have two sections namely a) Members in Industry and b) Members in Service, the specific details will be as follows(Excuse me if I did not write much about Members in Industry I am not very knowledgeable in that area since right from my start of career as a CA Student I was fully with Audit Firm and did not enter corporate)A) Members in Industry:A dedicated portal for CA’s in Industry which will list the job requirement of various companies and also which will be the only portal in which CA shall be recruited(This is required so that ICAI shall maintain the database of the members in industry as well and their current employer, their payscale etc.,) This portal will also fix the minimum remuneration to be paid to jire a CA(I firmly beleive this will go in a long way and this minimum pay will be revised for adjusting inflation and any member who is paid less than this minimum amount should not continue to work for that organisation and should also report that employer to the portal so that the said employer shall be blacklisted based on enquiry and not allowed to hire any CA after this)B) Members in Service:Currently the main enemy for any person starting practise is his professional from same fraternity only, I am saying this because lets assume ICAI recommends a fee of Rs. 6,000 for a service you will practically not be in business if you charge this Rs. 6,000 assume you charge this fee, there is a CA in the very next building who is ready to steal your business and charge only Rs. 5,000 or even lessDrive out Big 4: No Firms should be allowed to practise in the name of Big4, Even though they do not do it in paper today practically this is what is happening. They litrelly steal our practise and take the money outside INDIA.Centralised Billing for Service: Billing for Professional Charges will be raised through the above said common portal, here the CA will be able only select the client name and the type of service rendered and the rates and taxes will be auto populated from the master a CA will be allowed to enter a higher amount and not a lower amount. However provision will be made to provide special discount in specific cases which will be restricted as to the number of times this option shall be used per year. Service tax and Income tax department will be given access to this portal so that the persons who are tax consultant can be 100% tax compliant in the first instance. Further client will also be provided with a one time link to this portal wherein he has to input the payment once the Invoice is paid for which shall be authenticated by the CA.Reason for this step will be given in the coming paraCredit Rating System: The Above Billing System will be linked to a Credit rating System whereby every unique Client will be given score based on their payment history, this will be based on the time they take to pay the CA on an average and the clients who default the payment to CA will be blacklisted and no CA shall be allowed to take up a work from a client who is blacklisted.CA’s Employed in Audit Firms: Even though the older firms charge sometimes even in Lakhs to their client the field work done is completely done by a fresh CA, who is paid only a fraction of the total fees the firm received, this is to be changed and the payments made by this firms to the CA’s are to be reported to the above mentioned portal which will be reviewed by ICAI for fair payment to them based on Industry standard.Revenue Options for Freshly qualified CA’s: Currently there is very very little opportunities available for revenue generation for freshly qualified CA’s since MEF empanelment can be made only after 3 years and CAG empanelment only after 5 years. New opportunities will be identified and fresh CA will be in the panel from which this opportunities will be provided to the members based on industry requirement.Will add more as and when I remember.ThanksCA K Arun Kumar

It's gonna be my first answer on Quora and a lengthy one. I had waited so long for the right time to embark my journey as a writer on Quora.If you wanna, witness an extraordinary journey, of an ordinary middle class but very ambitious Bihari student, from no-one to about to be someone, then you have to read it till the end.If you wanna, know the pain of self preparation and their outcomes in CA Final Exam, then you have to read it in its entirety.So, Here we go…Before i share my CA Final (New Syllabus) Nov 18, Exam & Result, let me take you to the previous exam of the CA Final, which was my first attempt for CA Final (i.e. May 2018). I filled the exam form for both group, as intended to appear for both the groups.15th Dec 2017, was the date on which i boarded Golden Temple Express for Delhi from Mumbai Central. This was the last day of my Industrial Training at Bunge (an American MNC) and the Josh were so high to clear CA in first attempt, that without even wasting a day, i left for Delhi. My paid exam leaves for 2.5 months were about to start from the immediate succeeding day.Since, i've voluntarily enrolled for New Syllabus of ICAI, i didn't get the chance to take classes for CA Final. Albeit, i could have gone for the classes during my 2 years of articleship in Chennai, but my then financial position and ₹ 5k-7k p.m. stipend has left me no option, but to go for self-study.Being a hardcore Bihari (that too, a migrant one) there was no second thought, which crossed my mind about my decision of self-preparation.Being a science background student and having qualified CA-CPT in first attempt due to Maths, i decided to choose Direct Taxation as my area of operation.Best Mathematics and Worst English are most common traits of a Bihari student.Accounting and Auditing were not actually my things, that i've realized very early during my intermediate (CA-IPCC) preparation in Lakshmi Nagar, Delhi, itself. Hence, i joined a Taxation based Mediocre CA Firm in Kilpauk, Chennai.I started my CA Final preparation with the Direct Tax Modules of Vinod Gupta sir, that immensely helped me to clear my concepts in a real complex world of Income Tax.Fortunately i got my industrial training also in same field in a Fortune 500 listed US based MNC's Head Office in Bandra, Mumbai.Resultantly, i became more confident about my preparation, at least for the paper of Taxation, which had the weightage of 200 marks in Group ll of CA Final old syllabus at that time.Suddenly ICAI announced the revised scheme of CA curriculum, and the paper of International Taxation really came as a gift for me, which makes the total weightage of Taxation in Gr II (New Syllabus) for 300 marks. So, i had only Costing for 100 marks apart from Taxation in group ll.At the same time, revised syllabus was a curse too, for the students who planned for self-preparation, as the time left for exam were very less and there were no Study Materials released or reference books available in the Market till October 2017. Accounts paper in the new syllabus became completely Ind AS based, and the ICAI has broken all their previous records of providing errors, mistakes and wrong concepts, in the study material released for the said paper (i.e. FR)Now, the best decision of self-preparation started to feel like the worst decision i've ever taken. Leave the students, even the Teachers had no clue at that point of time, about the right content of the syllabus, exam pattern or anything.In addition to all these troubles ICAI dropped a new bomb named AICITSS (formerly known as Adv.ITT and GMCS) which has been made compulsory to complete in order to appear for the very first attempt of New syllabus (i.e. May 2018).Again i was fortunate enough to have The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) - Mumbai Chapter BKC branch at the 15-mins walking distance from my office in The Capital, BKC Mumbai and my senior manager was kind enough to allow me to enroll for evening batch (3 PM to 9 PM) for Adv. ITT. However, to compensate the work loss, i had to reach office every day at 8 AM sharp in the morning.So, the preparation of May 2018 attempt was not going as per the plan and the Winter in Delhi which i experienced after a gap of 3 years, was also contributing well in screwing up my all the study plans. However, i didn't give up and kept continue my preparation with prime focus on group II. ICAI study material was my sole source of preparation.Surprisingly, ICAI dropped another bomb, which i didn't face silently and that bomb was Paper-pencil mode MCQ based exam of Adv ITT, for which one need to fill the form and you will get the admit-card and then write the paper which needs to be qualified compulsorily, before you appear in the CA Final Exam.You may wonder that, what's the difficulty in it. Well... it was difficult, especially for me, i already had appeared and qualified the same exam and got the certificate too, six months back in Mumbai itself, when the ICAI had different syllabus of Adv.ITT course and different pattern. Now i didn't even have the updated syllabus and i was like,Are you punishing me for being proactive ??That i read your FAQ in advance on new syllabus and completed all the formalities, so i could write my paper peacefully in May.And here you are making amendments on daily basis like Government does in GST, No wonder you both unprepared regulators chose the same day to launch your new procedures.I wrote few mails and registered my grievances online but all went in vain and consequently i ended up appearing twice for the same exam at the gap of 6 months in two different cities with two different syllabus.After qualifying the aforesaid exam in Feb end, it was almost clear in my mind that if I appear for both group, probably i would fail. Hence, i skipped group I in May after filling the exam form for both the groups.[math]May 2018 Exam,[/math]As I didn't appear for the previous 4 papers i had no idea about the pattern of exam, my first day and May Exam's 5th day came as an unpleasant surprise for me. Following 3 things which were really unexpected and the later 2 leads me to failure in that attempt;Question paper was in [math]Yellow[/math] colour.The questions asked were not as per the ICAI guidelines issued,regarding the weightage. There were no case studies asked as it was promised for 20-30 marks and since the syllabus had a substantial part of theory it had to be there. But perhaps ICAI was being kind to those students who converted themselves from old scheme to new. Everyone in the classroom were wondering that, Is it an old syllabus question paper or new one ? For a student who's went for coaching classes, the paper might have been easy but for me who was preparing strictly as per ICAI, it was a betrayal from ICAI which costs me six months.The unprofessional behaviour of students in the Exam Hall during the exam. I was shocked to see, that how they were talking, reaching for help to each other, coughing deliberately to distract or attract someone for help. The Invigilator was really helpless. Some of you might have thinking that the said situation may have arised on the particular Exam center or School. But let me tell you that my experience was same in the Nov 18 exams too. If in the areas like Rohini and Pitmpura (most importantly it is in New Delhi, where the ICAI's head office is situated) situation is like this, then you could just imagine about the rest of the Country, specially the non-metros. I do not understand that what they are asking in the exam all,Are you guys really aspire to become a Chartered Accountant like this ?Well..The result came for May 2018 and as anticipated i failed in Costing with an aggregate of 166. The passing percentage of May 2018 CA final, for 2nd group in my category was unexpectedly low as it was just 1.5 %. In that attempt only 139 students in new syllabus became Chartered Accountants.After the exam of May 18, i joined the one and only class of CA final that i had intended to take and that was Financial Reporting. After 4 years, it felt like reunion with CA Praveen Sharma sir. The said result was declared in August and i had also applied for my Direct Tax certified answer sheet as the marks provided by them was not satisfactory. And then comes the historic day in September, Teacher's day 2018, when a video of Pankaj garg sir followed by Neeraj Arora sir on YouTube triggered nationwide protest on social media, and i was an active participant in the same movement. Despite having my next attempt due in Nov, i kept tweeting, sharing and tagging ICAI continuously on various social media platforms.My twitter handle is Saurabh Kr. Jha (@casaurabhjha) | TwitterFinally, the said protest came to an end after the President ordered for proper formation of a group to look in to the demand of students. After, that only i was able to resume my study. A week before 1st November, i again decided to skip the group 1 as my preparation for the Audit and SFM were not up to the mark.[math]Nov 18 Exam[/math],Costing went really well this time, and the ICAI allowed the self notes and own reference books for next elective paper, i was hoping to clear this attempt smoothly. But my own subject Direct Taxation broke my confidence to clear this attempt also, as the writing speed has always been the biggest problem for me in the exam hall, i ended up attempting only for 60 marks in Direct Tax. Despite being known to the answers of the rest of the questions, i couldn't attempt all the questions, as time fell short. IDT was my strongest paper, that also did not go well as per the plan and i attempted only for 65 marks.(Accuracy level was high in IDT).23rd Jan 2019, the day on which result were announced, i was simply lying down on my bed, covered myself fully in blanket watching Little Things season 2. I had the least expectations to qualify in exam.Then finally around 5 PM they announced the result, i entered the details and my result popped out. I didn't check the marks, just looked down for the relevant four words at the bottom on the mark sheet (FAIL or PASS)PASSOMG!!! It happened twice, exact the same... Got the marks required to clear for.. It's 200 like 100 i got in CPT. The subject which make me worried right after the exam, i scored 42 in that.As i broke the news to my family, words didn't come alone from my mouth, eyes were also trying to say a lot to them as my tears were rolling down continuously.So.. I failed once but qualified in 2nd attempt now it's only 4 paper, 4 months to go.. Just revision required for the same.. Josh is really High again..Before concluding my answer, i would take this opportunity to thank few teachers who's freely available revisionary videos on YouTube really helped me immensely;Direct Tax Videos : Vinod Gupta sir, Bhanwar Borana sir.Indirect Tax Videos : Rajkumar Sir (GST Baba)And before writing this answer i just read about the girl who was rescued from Human Trafficking at the age of 13, qualified CA from self study in her fourth attempt, which made me more energetic, that i am on right path..Qualifying CA with self study is very much possible. All you need is firm determination.As i already said, it's my first answer on Quora, hence suggestions and edits are always expected and welcome.Thanks for reading.